A 7 a.m. wake-up call: Students tune in to open-heart surgery
Most 17-year-olds are sleeping at 7 a.m. on a weekday, but Anna Gabrielle Geneblazo was wide awake watching open-heart surgery on Wednesday.
The surgery, which was broadcast to Providence hospitals across the country, including Providence Medical Park in Spokane Valley, actually took place in an operating suite in Portland. Unlike most ORs, this one has been uniquely designed to support multiple cameras, allowing viewers to see different angles.
Nearly 1,000 students tuned into the surgery nationwide, with several local viewers filling a conference room to watch the procedure, an aortic valve replacement. This entails a surgeon removing the diseased valve and sewing in a new product, whether mechanical or biological (pig, cow, human), to correct blood flow issues, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Dr. Gary Ott of Providence St. Vincent in Portland performed the procedure. He would have had to gain consent from the patient for this virtual viewing experience, though viewers never fully see the patient – only the draped surgical field.
It was Geneblazo’s first medical experience, and she thinks she may be convinced.
“(Other students) say it’s disgusting because it is a heart and there’s blood,” the Rogers High School student said. She realized, though, that she does not mind seeing the organs.
The beginning of the operation in which Ott, alongside his team, opened the patient’s chest surprised Geneblazo, because she had never seen “live surgery” in that form. That also made her curious for the end of the procedure, during which the surgeon must securely and neatly close the patient.
The high-schooler learned of the opportunity through her counselor. As a student who saw a future in mechanical engineering or automotives, the surgery experience opened her eyes to medicine, especially because she feels more capable of seeing the patient and the blood than some of her peers.
Ott answered questions throughout the procedure that viewers sent as they followed along. The operation was scheduled to last up to five and a half hours.
Experiences like these are part of Providence’s push to welcome students – either confident or unsure of an interest in medicine – to their facilities to experience the gamut of fields. They hope these students will later return to train and work.
The ProvReady surgical viewing program started in 2017, though its virtual, long-distance capacities were developed with the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Meghan Lindsay, Workforce Development Program Manager at Providence.
This offering began as a way to welcome several students without overcrowding operating rooms. Typically, Lindsay said, ORs are hosts for surgeons, nurses, anesthetists and other technicians. Thus, a constant flux of students shadowing any healthcare professional can overwhelm the sterile ecosystem of the suite.
Previously, brain, chest and orthopedic surgeries have been broadcast in addition to cardiac procedures like Wednesday’s.
ProvReady means “we don’t actually have to be in the room” to experience the surgery alongside the surgeon, Lindsay said.
Geneblazo said the experience “kind of” mimicked standing in the OR.
In addition to live surgical viewings, Lindsay and her team offer hospital tours, career fairs, emergency department open houses and, in Spokane, simulation labs, all geared toward youth engagement with healthcare.
To attend a ProvReady viewing, individuals must be 16 or older. Most local attendees were from Rogers High School, Central Valley High School, NEWTech Prep, Gonzaga University, EWU or WSU.